The optical jets of SS 433: Physical parameters

Details The optical jets of SS 433: Physical parameters The optical jets of SS 433: Physical parameters

Jul 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997arep...41..506p&link_type=abstract

Astronomy Reports, Volume 41, Issue 4, July 1997, pp.506-515

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

10

Scientific paper

The Balmer decrements of the emission lines of the SS 433 jets are derived using data from the Special Astrophysical Observatory 6-m telescope. The Balmer decrements for the two jets are very similar. Like the intensities of the moving lines, they vary with precessional phase and are significantly different at the phases of minimum and maximum moving line intensity. Their mean values Hα/Hβ = 1.3 and Hα/Hβ = 0.8 suggest the gas density is roughly 10^13 cm^-3. The physical parameters of the gas and the gaseous clouds in the jets are derived. The kinetic luminosity of the jets is of the order of 10^39 erg/s, and the clouds are optically thick in the Hα line and have sizes of about 10^8 cm. The clouds may group in clusters with size 10^12 cm. The behavior of the Balmer decrements and moving line intensities provides evidence that the optical depth of the emitting gas layer toward the observer decreases near precessional phase 0.8. This may be caused by a nonspherical shape of the gas clouds or brightening of the gas by shock waves. A determining factor in the cloud dynamics and the formation of the jet emission is the interaction of the jets with the gas from a slow accretion disk wind. This interaction occurs to a distance from the source of about 3 x 10^15 cm, where the jets sweep out the impinging gas. Further, an expansion zone forms in the jets, to a distance of approximately 4 x 10^15 cm. In this region, the jets propagate through a gas-free space, and the gas clouds rapidly expand, filling the entire jet volume. This gives rise to a zone of synchrotron emission brightening at a distance of about 4 x 10^15 cm.

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